Chinese billionaire-in-exile Guo Wengui, a controversial figure who claims to be an opponent of the Chinese regime, was arrested on Wednesday in New York, where American justices have accused him of cheating thousands of his online subscribers out of more than $1 billion .
Guo Wengui, 52, was arrested “this morning in New York” and indicted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan on 11 counts of “electronics fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering,” prosecutor Damian Williams’ services said in a press release.
The man who presented himself as a harsh critic of the Chinese communist regime and a fervent defender of democracy while maintaining ties to sulfurous figure on the American right, Steve Bannon, now faces multiple 20-year prison sentences.
“I want to try to achieve the rule of law, democracy, freedom, that’s my top priority, a regime change,” if possible “within three years,” he assured in a 2017 interview with AFP in his luxurious apartment in Manhattan. He then firmly rejected the allegations of fraud against him in China.
“Ho Wan Kwok, also known as ‘Miles Guo,'” or Guo Wengui, “conducted a complex scam aimed at scamming thousands of people who follow him online out of over a billion dollars,” he said, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.
According to American justice, the victims were promised hefty profits if they invested in the businessman’s companies.
“Kwok is accused of having lined his pockets with the stolen money, in particular by buying himself and his relatives a villa of more than 4600 m2, a Ferrari for 3.5 million dollars,” adds Damian Williams, who also ” two $36,000 mattresses” and the financing of “a $37 million luxury yacht”.
Federal prosecutors added that around $634 million in “proceeds from this alleged fraud” were seized from bank accounts in 2022 and 2023, along with assets including a “Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roads.”
An alleged accomplice, Kin Ming Je, believed to be Guo Wengui’s financier, is on the run and wanted by the American judiciary, prosecutors added.